Here are thumbnail sketches of the five alleged bosses of New York City's major organized crime families and four other reputed mobsters arrested yesterday.

Descriptions of the families' activities come from congressional hearings into organized crime.

PAUL CASTELLANO

Castellano, 72, of Staten Island, is said to control the largest and most powerful crime family with some 800 members and associates.

He is the cousin and brother-in-law of the late Carlo Gambino, who founded the group. He has been in control since 1977. The Gambino family is said to deal heavily in labor racketeering and counterfeiting and has extended its influence to ancillary services in Atlantic City casinos.

The group is also involved in many legitimate businesses including restaurants, jewelry stores, and carting firms in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Las Vegas.

A butcher by trade, Castellano was indicted along with 20 others last March as being part of a ring that allegedly murdered 25 people. Until his arrest, he was free on $2 million bail.

ANTONIO CORALLO

Corallo, 72, of Syosset, has headed the Lucchese group since 1974. The family is said to be deeply involved in narcotics, gambling and loansharking and has its hand in such legitimate industries as the garment, construction and waste removal trades.

Corallo, who reportedly got his nickname "Tony Ducks" for his ability to ''duck subpoenas," began his career helping labor leader Jimmy Hoffa gain control of the Teamsters Union in New York City.

His first arrest was at age 15 for grand larceny. He served two years in the early 1960s for trying to bribe a federal judge, three years for a kickback-conspiracy scheme and 4 1/2 more in the early 1970s for a bribery plot involving former Tammany Hall leader Carmine de Sapio.

The latest charge was lodged last September for allegedly conspiring to reduce competition in Long Island's carting industry through coercion, threats and illegal agreements. He was freed on $35,000 bail.

ANTHONY SALERNO

Salerno, 72, of Rheinbeck, the alleged chief of the Genovese crime network, once headed by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Vito Genovese and Funzi Tieri, is said to run a "vast network" of loansharking operations in New York and New Jersey and is also involved in Times Square pornography establishments, labor unions and the carting industry.

He is said to have gotten his start in crime as a driver for Mike Coppola, a one-time associate of murdered reputed mobster Albert Anastasia.

Although he was tried twice in 1977 on income tax evasion charges, both trials ended with hung juries.

He eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion and was sentenced to only six months in jail because of his advanced age, ill health and previously unblemished criminal record.

GENNARO LANGELLA

A one-time underboss for Carmine "The Snake" Persico, who was arrested last week on Long Island, Langella is said to have taken over control of the Colombo family while Persico was in hiding.

At 46, Langella, who lives in Brooklyn, is the youngest of the alleged mob bosses. In addition to such businesses as narcotics and gambling, the Colombo clan is said to be heavily involved in legitimate businesses including funeral homes, catering companies and even a motion picture studio.

Langella served six months in jail in 1974 on a contempt of court charge for refusing to say he had visited a Nyack home where the planned assassination of Joe Gallo reportedly was discussed.

He was one of 11 men indicted by federal authorities last October on 51 counts of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. He had been free on bail.

PHILIP RASTELLI

Rastelli, 67, of Brooklyn, was said to have been made head of the Bonanno clan in 1969 after his associate, Frank Mari, disappeared. He reportedly ''willingly" turned the helm over to Carmine Galante after being sentenced in 1976 to 10 years in jail on extortion charges.

When Galante was murdered in 1979 he allegedly took over again, controlling the vast crime network from a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa.

Police date Rastelli's criminal history back to age 8 when he was arrested for juvenile delinquency. He graduated to assault and robbery in 1950 and was charged but later acquitted in the 1954 murder of Michael Russo.

In 1962, his estranged wife, Connie, was found shot to death two days after she reportedly told FBI agents that Rastelli was an international narcotics dealer. Rastelli was not charged.

Rastelli was convicted of loan shark charges in 1972 and later on federal charges of extortion, involving mobile lunch wagons.

Released from jail in April 1983, Rastelli went back for parole violations.

The Bonanno family reaps most of its profits from the narcotics trade, although it has recently moved into the production of hard-core pornography movies for use in home video recorders.

ANIELLO DELLACROCE

Dellacroce, 70, of Staten Island, reportedly struggled with Carmine Galante for control of the Gambino mob when Philip Rastelli was jailed.

An assistant district attorney once referred to Dellacroce as "the godfather of all crime in New York City."

And federal Judge Arnold Bauman referred to him as "a top level hoodlum, a danger to society, a menace to the community, a parasite who lives off the lifeblood of honest people."

Dellacroce - an alleged ex-assassin for the famed Murder Inc. - spent six years in jail in the 1970s for tax evasion, assault and attempted burglary. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in 1979 for allegedly ordering the execution of Charles Calisis, a government informer, but acquitted a year later.

He was arrested last November on income tax evasion charges. Bail was set at $1 million.

SALVATORE SANTORO

A former aide to alleged mob boss Thomas "Three Finger Brown" Lucchese, he was described by New York narcotics detectives as being "an important member of one of the leading criminal syndicates in New York" and one who was ''in a key position in the underworld."

FBI agents described Santoro, 69, of the Bronx, as being a former captain and current underboss for the Lucchese family.

Said to be a major narcotics importer and distributor, Santoro has two convictions for drug-related crimes.

CHRISTOPHER FURNARI

State police Lt. Col. Justin J. Dintino told a congressional hearing in 1983 that Furnari (an alleged "consigliere" or counselor in the Lucchese clan) was "being groomed to succeed Antonio Corallo as boss of the (Lucchese) family."

Furnari, 60, of the Bronx, is reportedly involved in financing narcotics, gambling, hijacking and loanshark operations.

RALPH SCOPO

Reportedly a new soldier in the Colombo family, Scopo is president of the Concrete Workers District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America.